Northborough 4-H club visits seniors
By Julia Cho Contributing Writer

4-H members (l to r) Maggie Serra and Kelly Russo offer a rabbit to seniors at the Hearthstone Assisted Living Residence in Hopkinton. PHOTO/SUBMITTED

Northborough - Recently, the Northborough 4-H Rabbit and Guinea Pig Club paid a visit to the Hearthstone Assisted Living Residence in Hopkinton, bringing along a few four-legged friends to visit with some of the residents there. Pet therapy, in which animals are brought to a nursing home or other long-term care facility to interact with the residents, has become a common practice for many centers in recent years. The Northborough 4-H club has been visiting nursing homes for over six years now, with members bringing their own animals, including rabbits and dogs, and each visit is a great experience for both the residents and the kids.

Rose Russo has been the leader of the Northborough 4-H club since its inception six years ago. Presently, they have 14 members, who are mostly from Northborough.

"We started visiting nursing homes the very first year we started as a club," Rose said. "We've always found that the seniors really loved having visitors."

Rose explained that because many of the residents are in wheelchairs, have problems with moving and are restricted to the home, having the kids bring the animals to them is good therapy for the seniors: both petting the animals and interacting with the kids as well.

The club members have visited several area nursing homes, such as the Coleman House and Beaumont Center in Northborough, and plan on doing several more visits to nursing homes this year.

"The kids really love doing it," Rose said. "So we're going to try to do it more."

Kelly Russo, Rose's daughter, has been with 4-H for nine years, starting out with the Bolton 4-H club. Kelly has been to a number of nursing homes with her pets and really enjoys seeing the patients interact with the animals.

"I think it's been a really good experience," Kelly said. "For the Alzheimer patients, it brings back certain memories, like if they had childhood pets. Sometimes they start talking about the pets they used to have. I think it's really good for them."

Another 4-H member, Katie Wilson, has only been with the club since September 2007, but is already looking forward to doing another nursing home visit. Katie brought her pet rabbit "Pumpkin" to Hearthstone, which was both Katie's and Pumpkin's first 4-H visit to a nursing home.

"They smiled a lot," said Wilson of the residents' reaction to her pet. "A lot of them said that they used to have a bunny or some other pet."

Katie said she felt good helping out because it made the residents so obviously happy to see and interact with the rabbits and dogs that they brought on the visit.

Rose said that the 4-H club is also active in other community events, such as at Applefest, where the group runs the very popular mini petting zoo, and has collected food for Help the Hungry.

"We do a lot of community service events," Rose said. "We're always looking for ways to help out."

Anyone interested in more information about the Northborough 4-H club can call Rose Russo at 508-393-4152.